The Stars Surround
by MistyCodec
Summary: By a strange twist of fate, the TARDIS brings the Doctor to a lonely cargo ship far into the future, seemingly in another universe. These people, the crew of the Nostromo, are in grave danger, and the Doctor knows this. But does he risk revealing the future to Ripley and her friends, or will he stand by as the strange alien creature stalking the ship takes them down, one by one?
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LOCATION 2122

The Commercial Towing Ship USCSS Nostromo drifted in the cold vacuum that was space. It was fifty-seven light years from its home, and it carried a crew of seven, all safely sleeping in their hibernation berths. The ship was quietly running its routine diagnostics and piloting the ship through yet another system, taking both the crew and its precious cargo of ore back home to Earth.

The ship's AI, MOTHER, was blissfully humming away on standby, letting the latest information stream into her databanks where it would be safely stowed away for later. While she conserved power during the long return trip, she entrusted the carefully calibrated navigation systems do the work for her. But something still nagged at her. Being an AI, she couldn't think much about anything, but a tiny silicon chip located in the northern hub of her central processors refused to let her completely rest.

The chip was designed to detect signals of every frequency, of every design. In essence, the chip was constantly scanning the void around the Nostromo for any signs of life. The whole trip, MOTHER had found nothing but silence. Now, the chip was sending out a soft beep, alerting MOTHER that it had received a transmission - a faint radio wave that appeared to be coming from a small planet in the system they were now passing through. Its name was LV-426, but what was incomprehensible to MOTHER was that her information banks told her that the planet didn't even harbor simple bacteria. It was a barren wasteland, and yet the chip had detected something.

However, her programming was absolute, and MOTHER had no choice but to carry out her Primary Objective.

INITIATING WAKE-UP SEQUENCE ...5%

...15%

...30%

...65%

...90%

...100%

WAKE-UP SEQUENCE COMPLETE. OPENING HIBERNATION UNITS WILL BEGIN SHORTLY.

It was time to wake up.


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The tenth Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS and suddenly realized that his dark and damp surroundings were not London in the slightest bit. He ruffled his brown spiky hair in annoyance and stepped outside, hoping to gain a better idea of where he was. He fumbled around in the dark for some sort of switch until his hand found what felt like a large button. He smacked it hard, and suddenly the wall in front of him whooshed open, revealing a dimly lit corridor. Now that he could see his surroundings, he looked behind him and quickly realized was at the top of a maintenance shaft for some sort of spacecraft.

"Ooh. This is definitely not London," he mumbled aloud. "Well, at least I should figure out where I am." He glanced around the room for a control panel. He spotted one on the back wall, and quickly flipped open the cover. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver from inside his suit pocket, he began scanning the inner mechanisms of the panel. The soft blue glow and whirring noise emanating from the device cut through the eerie silence, and the Doctor shivered. He selected a red wire that looked promising and neatly snipped it in two with his sonic screwdriver, then peered closely at the sparking cords inside. He hoped that the wire wasn't too vital to the ship, and quickly braced himself for an explosion. Instead, a screen popped out from the wall, displaying a directory with a few simple prompts. The Doctor smiled, then tapped the screen to bring up the virtual keyboard. Suddenly, the keyboard disappeared, and the screen turned a bright red. In large white text, an error message flashed rapidly.

"UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS. ENTER PASSWORD," the computer blatted in a harsh electronic tone.

"Ah, terribly sorry, but you see…I don't do passwords." The Doctor twirled his sonic screwdriver in the air and aimed it directly at the center of the screen. The computer began to make an awful grinding noise, and the screen glitched and spat sparks. Then, as quickly as it started, the computer calmed down, and the command prompt screen returned.

"PASSWORD ACCEPTED. WELCOME BACK, MR. WEYLAND." The Doctor grinned, and began cycling through the complex menus of the computer's data banks.

"Let's see here…ah, there we are. Ship name…Nostromo?" The name sounded familiar to the Doctor, but he couldn't recall why. "Crew Members…only seven? That's strange. Ship this large, you'd need at least fifty, maybe more. Cargo…ores?" The Doctor wrinkled his nose. He had a special contempt for ore transfer ships ever since he had a nasty run-in with one commandeered by Cybermen in his fourth reincarnation. Many hundreds of years ago, the only weapon in the entire universe against the Cybermen was gold dust, which is a nightmare on wool scarves. It took him ages to wash out all the dust from his scarf, and ever since he hates three things more than anything else: Daleks, guns, and ore ships. He navigated back to the main diagnostics page and began scrolling through a long list of entries on the ships specifications until a single entry caught his eye.

"Primary Objective…Search for Interstellar Life Forms? But this is an ore transfer ship; why would it be bothering with aliens? It's not even properly equipped for that."

Suddenly, the room was bathed in light, and the floor beneath the Doctor's feet began to rumble as the ship's systems roared to life. The door to the outside corridor slid shut ominously. "Oh, Sycorax talons," he grumbled. "What did I do now?" He turned back to the command panel. "Computer, what's with all that rumbling and flashing lights? I don't really do flashy lights as a general rule, so–"

"PROXIMITY TO LIFE-PRODUCING PLANET IS LESS THAN 10000 CLICKS. LANDING PROCESS WILL BEGIN SHORTLY," the computer interrupted.

"Life producing planet? What d'you mean, 'Life producing planet?'" The Doctor asked, slipping on his slim black glasses. This was a matter that required a closer inspection. "There's no living thing around here for at least a couple hundred light years. No suns, no moons, no planets…no life."

"INCORRECT," the computer insisted. The Doctor stuck his tongue out at the computer, even though he knew it could not see him. He hated being wrong, and being outsmarted by a simple command prompt computer was the worst insult of all.

"Listen here, computer, I've been all over the universe, and I can tell you that there has never been, nor will there be, a planet in this sector."

"AN EXTERNAL SCAN RUN BY CENTRAL PROCESSOR MOTHER PROVED SUCCESSFUL. ONE PLANETOID MEETS ALL CRITERION OF SUPPORTING LIFE."

All of a sudden, the Doctor remembered why the ship's name was so familiar. "Crew of seven…of course! This is the Nostromo!" The Doctor smacked himself in the face. "How could I be so stupid?" He suddenly stopped smiling, and the color drained from his face. "But then that means…computer, what is the name of this planet?"

"IT'S GALACTIC IDENTIFICATION CODE IS LV-426," it replied. The Doctor swallowed hard. He had to get off the ship at once, get the TARDIS to take him somewhere else, and fast. He knew that in a matter of hours, every crew member aboard would be dead, and he would be too if he didn't leave immediately. He raced back to the TARDIS and tugged hard on the doors, but they refused to open.

"Come on, old girl! Let me in!" The Doctor instinctively snapped his fingers, but the doors to the TARDIS did not swing open. He tugged hard once more, but to no avail. He was locked out of his own spacecraft, with no apparent means of opening it again. He now knew that his only chance was to warn the crew before they landed. Under no circumstances could be allow this ship to make contact with that planet. "Ripley. I've got to find Ripley. She'll understand," he said to himself. Suddenly, the floor beneath him shook again, more violently than before, and his legs buckled. The Doctor collapsed to the mesh floor of the maintenance shaft, and his glasses dangled dangerously off one ear.

The ship was waking up.

• — • — •

Ripley woke with a start and abruptly sat up. She was disoriented and covered in stasis goo. Her mind was a jumbled mess from the long stay in her hibernation berth, but she managed to put together a single coherent thought: The ship is waking us up; we must be home. Rubbing sleep out of her eyes, she looked around the room. Her other crew members were also waking up, slowly rising from their berths and wiping the sticky green goo out of their faces. It appeared that Ash, the science officer on the ship had woken first, and was now helping the others out of their berths. How he was already changed and clean was a mystery Ripley could never understand, but she tended to not let little insignificant facts like that worry her.

"Oh good, you're awake now," Ash said, turning towards Ripley. "I trust you had a pleasant sleep? Or, dreams, as you call them?" "Don't dream much in the berths," she replied tersely, sliding out of her berth.

"Don't dream much anyways," she added quietly, more to herself than anyone else.

"In any case, I welcome you back to reality, Miss Ripley. It will only be a few hours before we arrive at the Terra Sol system, and then less than thirty minutes before we reach Earth. You'll be back before you know it," Ash smiled.

Ripley nodded, and slowly slid off of her berth, her slick feet barely managing to find traction against the smooth white floor of the cryo room. Her legs shook slightly, her body still in the process of restarting normal bodily functions. That was the one thing that Ripley never liked about the berths. Although stasis goo, or Cryonic REM Fluid as it was more well known, was the latest technology in suspended animation, the human body took far too long to recover after an extended period of rest. In some cases, early test subjects had died in their sleep after only six months of exposure to the stasis goo. Of course, after many years of use without a single casualty, it was now deemed perfectly safe for all interstellar travelers. But Ripley still got that uneasy feeling in her stomach every time she had to undergo the routine.

"Hey, Ripley. You alright?" Ripley was pulled out of her thoughts by Dallas, the ship's captain. She would never admit it to anyone, but she had a soft spot in her heart for Dallas. He was intelligent, strong, sensitive; not many men like him just happen to be assigned to your star sector. And, he was assuredly single.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," she replied, a smile breaking onto her face.

"That's good," Dallas replied, returning the smile. "God, I'm so glad we're finally home. That blasted recon mission too too damn long, if you ask me."

"Never did like the Thedus system," Ripley grumbled.

"Oi, are you two lovebirds done over there? We need some help up on the bridge. MOTHER's got a message for us."

Ripley frowned at Kane, the ship's executive officer, who was grinning impishly, his uniform half-on and damp with goo. "Say that again, and I'll kick you ass all the way back to Thedus."

"And you'd get yourself a one-way ticket to the Deten Center. Weyland doesn't look too kindly on insubordination," Kane replied.

"She was just talking to me, Kane. Don't get your panties in a ruffle, alright?" Dallas said with a light chuckle.

"If I had any sir, I'd be sure to honor your orders," Kane replied dryly.

"And don't you go forgetting who's in charge here," Dallas added, before slipping out the door of the cryo room. The other three crew members, navigator Lambert, and engineers Brett and Parker, followed closely behind, leaving Ripley alone with Ash, who was beginning to clean the remnants of stasis goo, and Kane, who was watching her closely with folded arms and an icy stare.

"Something wrong, Kane?" Ripley mumbled as she changed into a new, goo-free flight suit.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong. Just a hunch."

"A hunch? About what?"

"Doesn't matter. Much. But…just know that if my hunch is correct…I could send you to Deten just for standing on this ship."

Ripley turned around to face Kane. He stared coldly at her, his fingers drumming softly against the ribbed fabric of his flight suit. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," Ripley said, eyes wide.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Miss Ellen Ripley. And I would tread carefully from now on if I were you. Quite…carefully." Without another word, Kane turned on his heel and left the room. Ripley furrowed her brow, and faint wrinkles began to appear on her forehead. What could Kane possibly be talking about? He couldn't know about Dallas. After all, Ripley had told no one of her affinity towards the captain. Not even Dallas knew. She decided to not let it worry her too much, and she slowly began to make her way up to the bridge.

Ash watched her leave, his eyes cold and calculating. As soon as Ripley was out of sight and earshot, he pulled a slim device from his breast pocket and flipped it open.

"Hello, this is science officer Greyson Ash aboard the USCSS Nostromo. Put me through to Weyland," he spoke into the device. Seconds later, an elderly male voice replied.

"Ash. What news do you bring me? Did you find the planet yet?"

"Yes sir, in fact, we did. We shall be landing shortly," Ash said.

"Excellent," the voice replied. "Make sure you bring back the beast alive. Am I understood?"

"Perfectly, sir. But there is one problem. Someone else is aboard the ship."

"Someone…else?" The was an edge to the voice now that had not been present before. "How the hell did anyone else get aboard?"

"I don't know, sir. MOTHER alerted me of a life sign that appeared on C-Deck not more than half an hour ago."

"Does the crew know?"

"I don't believe so, sir."

"Is he going to cause us trouble?"

"Not if I can help it."

"Good. Best keep it that way. I don't want this stowaway ruining my plan, you understand?" the voice asked.

"Yes, sir." Ash closed the silvery device and placed it back inside his pocket. He then started to walk not towards the bridge, but towards C-Deck. He had a stowaway to dispose of.


End file.
